Students, lecturers count cost of ASUU strike

The lingering industrial strike action by the
Academic Staff Union of Universities comes
with a lot of cost for both students and
lecturers, writes ARUKAINO UMUKORO
Two months after the Academic Staff Union of
Universities embarked on an industrial action,
the negotiations between the union and the
Federal Government is still deadlocked.
Like professor and Dean, Faculty of Arts,
University of Lagos, Yomi Akinyeye, noted, ‘one
cannot make an omelette without breaking
eggs.’ In other words, one cannot achieve
something without causing a few
inconveniences.
According to Akinyeye, the strike will not only
affect the students and the lecturers, but also
the country’s economy, in the long run.
“Most of the problems that Nigeria is currently
facing would have been better solved if the
issues are properly addressed and the
priorities set right. The academic calendar of
the students has already been disrupted. This
would mean the adjustment of their time table
and a delay in their year of graduation. The
man hours lost over this period would have to
be paid for,” Akinyeye noted.
Considering the duration of the strike, which
has lingered since July 1, the total sum in
salary for the lecturers may run into billions of
naira.
The strike also has a spiral effect on the
nation’s education and economic sector, noted
professor of Science and Technology
Education, University of Lagos, Duro Ajeyalemi.
He stated that while the dreams of many
students in their final year have invariably
been put on hold, the delay in the university
academic calendar will also increase the
competition among candidates willing to gain
admission into the universities.
These factors will also cause an increase in the
number of fresh graduates in the labour
market at the end of the academic year, he
said.
“Because the devil also finds work for ideal
hands, these students may be getting involved
in other things that may not be good for the
economy; those who are just idling about at
home could cause security problems,”
Ajeyalemi said.
The earlier the Federal Government resolved
the matter, the better for the economy,
Ajeyalemi advised.
“It was the government that promised N400bn
over a couple of years, starting with the
release of N100bn as at that time (2009). But
they have not done that. Also, the allowances
were part of the agreement signed. So what
ASUU is simply asking for is the
implementation of the agreement. It is a
matter of give and take,” he said.
Even students that believe in ASUU’s struggle
are tired of sitting at home. An undergraduate
student of the University of Lagos, Joshua
Oyeniyi, wrote: “I write on behalf of the
millions of dreams that are getting squashed
by the day as the total shut-down of our
universities persists. I write on behalf of the
future of the several hundreds of thousands
who have been privileged, amidst the stiff
competition for admission, to grasp tertiary
education but may end up worse than their
disadvantaged counterparts, since they may
never finish, much less finish on schedule their
educational pursuits.”
He pleaded with the Federal Government to
honour the 2009 agreement with ASUU so that
students could return to the lecture rooms and
pick up the pieces of their “scattered
semesters.”
An undergraduate of the Lagos State
University, Joshua Oyero, agreed that students
bear the brunt of the strike more because the
lecturers would still receive their salaries
during the period the action lasted.
“We suffer more intellectually. For instance,
many schools would release their examination
time-tables a week after the strike is called
off. They wouldn’t care to know whether the
school was three weeks into lectures when the
strike had commenced. They are only
concerned with how to start another academic
calendar,” he said, adding that the Federal
Government should not kill the “education
economy by their tight-fisted economic
policies”
For Head, Department of Communication and
Language Arts, University of Ibadan, Nigeria,
Dr. Ayobami Ojebode, the impact of the
regular strike actions embarked upon by ASUU
would be most felt, not only in the quality of
graduates being churned out by the country’s
public universities, but also by the labour
market and employers of labour. Like he put
it, the country has a “greedy and rabidly
impatient employment system.”
“Graduates, everywhere, are like computers.
You don’t buy a laptop today and expect that
right now, it must run your salary system for
you, and compute your departmental results
and do everything you want. No computer is
configured to do all of that. You must sit down
and programme it; install the right software
and input data. Employers in Nigeria have to
understand that.
“When you employ a graduate, and you expect
him to speak the language of your
organisation, write your memos in your house
style, or operate your fabrication machine as if
that is the only one known in the wide world,
you are being unrealistic in your expectations,
impatient and greedy. Fresh graduates have to
be trained – that is, you must install your
software in them and input data into them.
This is investment, also known as sowing – and
the Nigerian entrepreneur wants to reap, he or
she doesn’t want to sow. Reaping where you
hadn’t sown is a major Nigerian problem,” he
said.
Many analysts have argued that considering
the issues involved, the fruits of this strike
would certainly not taste sweet for any of the
parties involved.